How to change the "gray" background in MS Access 2016

[djimenez]

Hello everyone,

I was trying to change the color or use a picture in the MS Access 2013 gray background with no results. I don't want to change the office theme, just modify the background of my system using my company's logo if possible. I've been looking in the web but only have found examples for MS Access 2003 or older versions using windows API's and the examples works good, but doesn't work in recent versions of MS Access.

I'm using MS Access 2016 & MS Windows 64-bit as Operating System, can any one help me about this problem?

Thanks in advance

 

[Ranman256]

you can paste photos on a form. (or backgrounds)

 

[The_Doc_Man]

To change color: Open a form in design mode. Click on the background. From the ribbon, select "Format" and look for the Ribbon's "Font" section. The paint-can icon is the one that sets background color.

To use a logo: Open the form in design mode. Click on the background. From the ribbon, select "Design" and look for the Ribbon's Header/Footer section. There is a "Logo" icon that will do this for you.

 

[djimenez]

Hi guys,

I'm not trying to use a form and edit the background of it, what I want to change is the background of the MS Access interface which by default appears in grey color.

Thanks

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I believe that Access uses the system theme for that color choice. When you open Word and close the document window without closing Word itself, do you see the same color? If I am right, you can forget about the logo.

 

[djimenez]

Yes The Doc Man when I open word can see the same background

 

[djimenez]

Hello I would like to obtain something like the picture but not with an access form. There are some examples for MS Access 2003 or older versions and works through Windows API's I think is possible to do the same for the new version of MS Access 2016

Regards

 

[The_Doc_Man]

If you see the same background on both Word and Access, you would probably see this on ANY utility that has the option to close file without closing the utility. Excel and PowerPoint come to mind.

What you are seeing is governed by the codes of the Windows system theme. This theme has nothing to do with Access itself. Here, Access is a user, not a definer, of the values in question. I don't know that you CAN get Access to do that logo display for the general case because that would require you to muck with Access's internals. That's generally a no-no because it voids the warranty.

The problem with mactreb's answer is that it doesn't work for the case in which you just launch Access directly (say, from the program list you get when you click the Windows Start button at the lower left of the desktop, or from a desktop icon.) It would only work for any application you launch by clicking on the app's icon. Neither of the direct methods of opening Access will HAVE a default opening form, because it is not a property of MSAccess.EXE, it is a property of an application file.

I honestly don't know how you can get where you want to go with displaying that image. I don't offhand know of anything that would affect "raw" Access. The image you showed could have been a case of using mactreb's solution on an app but not on Access itself.

 

[static]

If you're at the level of designing custom backgrounds for the database window you should be at a high enough level to know that a general user should never see the database window anyway.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Excellent point, static. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.

Further, it is trivial to create a switchboard form for an app in which the background contains the logo. I already posted how to do that for recent versions of Access.

It wasn't what djimenez requested, but one approach I took was that all my forms for my big US Navy project had a spot reserved in the top line of the form for a small logo of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR). It was an image control and the Form_Load code called a common setup routine that loaded titles, pointed the image control to the logo file, and determined stuff about the current user for display in various parts of the header or footer on the form. Easy-peazey!

 

[djimenez]

Thanks a lot to all for your comments, I really appreciate the time all of you spend to help others. I'll try with all the options you have posted and the will write later